1. Field of the invention
This invention relates generally to gaming wheels or rotatable gaming apparatus which may be manually spun by a user's hand to select, by chance or by skill, various numbers, colors or other informational fields or sectors on a rotating OR stationary game board or wheel, with rotatable manual gripping means. More specifically, the field of the present invention involves frame structures and improvements and optional means that may be employed to further lessen risk of injury primarily especially because of drastically reduced weight and limited bulk of componentry to rotate by a user's hand, and enhance convenience when actuating or rotating such wheels, aka., Wheel of Fortune® (W of F),” “Games of Chance Wheels,” Wheels of Chance, or Prize Wheels. The invention may be further enhanced by inclusion of the above improvements with the inventor's former application: Ser. No. 12/493,170 Dated: Jun. 27, 2009 entitled: Safe and Novel, Lightweight Hand-Grip Systems for Manually Spinning Gaming Wheels.
2. Description of Prior Art
The art of record discloses minimal innovations as to hand grip systems or gripping apparatus that increase safety and simplify the game wheel user's experience. The standard methods or structures that the majority of former art uses is simply to “grab the edge of the rotatable board or wheel” and spin it, whether the spinning axis is perpendicular or parallel to the ground. These wheels use a rotating board that typically comprises an annularly arrayed set of pegs or raised surfaces, most often affixed to their outer peripheries, which rotate with the wheel and strike a flipper or finger-like indicator.
The art of record discloses minimal innovations as to hand grip systems or gripping apparatus that increase safety and simplify the game wheel user's experience. The standard methods or structures that the majority of former art uses is simply to “grab the edge of the rotatable board or wheel” and spin it, whether the spinning axis is perpendicular or parallel to the ground. Also, grabbing long spikes, as the said Wheel of Fortune is another method of spinning, as discussed in the above said former application, of which more improvements of the invention are disclosed herein. These wheels use a rotating board that typically comprises an annularly arrayed set of pegs or raised surfaces, most often affixed to their outer peripheries, which rotate with the wheel and strike a spring-clicking flipper indicator (or multiple flipper indicators, aka. sector identification members) that determines the stop point and informational field or sector which is “played” by the game wheel user. Various wheels whose axis is parallel to the ground are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 614,418; 2,077,124; 5,164,821; 5,340,214 and others. These are typically activated by simply grasping the side of the wheel by hand then thrusting downward to effect rotation. Other patents or former art disclose use a crank handle to turn the wheel or apparatus, usually for mixing up chance pieces, as bingo balls, are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,003,979; 4,813,676; and 4,834,385. Several chance wheels whose axis is perpendicular to the ground are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,990,859, 4,210,331 and U.S. Design Pat. Des. 270,362.